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I was a junior in college interning at the Massachusetts State House when the uproar over the 2003 Goodridge decision (the Supreme Judicial Court case legalizing marriage equality) came to a head. With Goodridge, Massachusetts became the first state in the union recognizing marriage equality, a move which at the time lacked popular public support within the commonwealth. Just 3 months after the SJC's ruling for instance, the Boston Globe found a scant 35% of the public in support of marriage equality, with 53% opposed. Worse still, with the 2004 general election heating up, the Bush re-election team seized on marriage equality as an decisive wedge issue which effectively propelled millions of Americans to abandon their own economic interests and instead cast a ballot for a president who historians will undoubtedly remember as one of the worse in the nation's history. By election night's end, some 11 states, including the rather progressive Oregon, had adopted amendments banning marriage equality in their constitutions. It was a sad day.
10 Years Later...
And it is an amazingly different story. Already, some 18 state and the District of Columbia recognize marriage equality. Better still, as illustrated by Nate Silver graph above, a strong and rapidly growing majority of Americans support marriage equality. That's a huge reversal from just 10 years ago!!
We likewise find more good news when we project support for marriage equality at the state level over the course of the next few years.
And the best news of all...Surprisingly, it's Utah.
As anyone reading this post likely knows, Utah isn't exactly gay friendly, but with the recent Kitchen v. Herbert decision, which ruled Utah's gay marriage ban unconstitutional on due process and equal protection grounds, I wouldn't be surprised to see a rash of other federal courts issue similar rulings in the months that follow. Moreover, I wouldn't also be surprised (especially having read Justice Kennedy's opinion on the Windsor and Prop 8 case this past year) if the Supreme Court decided to take a pass on future marriage equality issues, effectively leaving in place a lower courts decision invalidating other state marriage equality bans.
Of course, we'll have to wait and see how all this turns out. Whatever happens, 2013 was a good year for marriage equality, but 2014 promises to be even better!!